Kanye West Receives Honorary Doctorate Degree (Full Speech) + Quotes From His Talk w/ Students

Just a short while ago, the College Dropout Kanye West received his honorary doctorate degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Nope, that still wasn’t enough for him to crack a smile at the camera but he seemed pleased during his speech.

Below, you can watch video of the full speech. Congrats Dr. West!

Hey mama, you know I act a fool
And I promise you I’m going back to school

UPDATE: A day before the ceremony, Kanye spoke to a packed room of about 400 students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Tickets were available only for the SAIC students and faculty which sold out in 13 minutes according to their spokesperson.

Chicago Tribune has obtained some of the transcripts from the evening which are reproduced below:

“People like working with people that are married because obviously, these people are willing to be controlled and compromised… ”

“Why does H&M work and Zara work? Why does Celine and Givenchy work? Why does the Gap somewhat work?”

“(Green”) actually is my favorite color. It was my mom’s favorite color and I think it’s just the color of nature and it’s an awesome color. I really don’t like blue. The color. Not the child. I love Blue. I love Jay-Z’s daughter…. Now they’re gonna say, ‘Jay-Z, he doesn’t like to fly North West.'”

“Fonts. I get emotional over fonts.”

“I think the responsibility that we have as artists — and I will mention myself in the same breath as you because after Tuesday, I will have a doctorate — throughout time, as artists, our responsibility was to truth… Because how else could history be documented? How else could our time be represented? This time that we had? Who’s going to stand up and say how it really is right now? Who’s gonna express that?”

“Why do the people who have the most genius idea or cultural understanding or create the best art have to figure out how to become a businessman in order to be successful at expressing it? You remember Jay-Z has that rap: ‘I’m not a businessman/ I’m a business, man.’ I have a rap that goes: ‘I’m not a businessman/I’m not a business, man.’ ”

“We’re all part of one giant movie, one giant painting. And every day you step out, you’re a piece of that painting… I hate giving these like meaningful statements and everybody’s like ‘Oh, that really changed everything for me and (expletive).’ I’d rather be like Michelangelo and not finish the statement, but let you, you know, (like) the end of ‘The Sopranos’ – let you decide what happens next.”